Bonfire of the Vanities

The Bonfire of the Vanities was the name given to Fra Girolamo Savonarola's systematic burning of cosmetics, art, books, and other "luxury" or "sacrilegious" items. Savonarola motivated his followers to burn items that encouraged vanity and passion, throwing books (including irreplaceable manuscripts and books of divination, astrology, and magic), mirrors, musical instruments, secular artwork, cosmetics, and other expensive items into massive public bonfires. Savonarola's mobs went around in public and demanded that the people of Florence "repent" for their sins, with even children dressing in monk's uniforms and reporting people for being "sodomites" or being "vane". People accused of sodomy were stoned to death publicly, while witches were burned to death. The wealthy merchants and bankers of Florence were also attacked by mobs, with Duke Lorenzo the Magnificent's tomb being desecrated. On 13 May 1497, Pope Alexander VI excommunicated Savonarola for his extremism, and he was executed on 23 May 1498, being hung on a cross and burned to death as a heretic. All of his writings had to be turned in to the Papal authorities for burning, and Savonarola's radical views were soon wiped from the face of the Earth as Florence returned to being a mercantile republic.